Making it in Music – What is your definition of successful?

What is your definition of successful? What do you need to make in your mind to be making it in music? When you state the words “I want to be a musician”, what does that entail creatively, financially, and even time wise?

When you ask the question to your self about how to make it in entertainment, you need to ask yourself what is your definition of making it? Are you also asking the question, how can I get signed? Or are you asking yourself how can I succeed as an independent musician?

Then, if you are in a band, all the more questions arise, because the expectations and definitions need to be clear with each of the members. Is this a part time thing? Are you looking for a level of success that allots you a good yearly income for a long time or are you trying to become stupid rich and die trying?

Setting standards and working backwards to getting there is a great way to plan. With a best case scenario on a solid level, what would you like to be making as well as the other bands members to be living your dreams, taking care of your responsibilities, being able to afford a good life with out the excess dreams of millions and millions? When you are able to put together the numbers that define your success, it will be easier for a music consultant, a real label, a real manager or real agent to come up with a plan that takes that in to account and the beginning steps on how to get there.

Remember, once you have tallied up the totals, taken out taxes, you still have to add all the considerations and costs for touring, recording and other budgetary aspects. Then if you are thinking of a label or some one to do a great deal of the work for you, don’t forget to add their percentage. Not going to go too deep in to it, but as a very simple overview especially when labels and many other people are involved, if you want to make 250K in a year for a band, you are going to have to bring in a million to cover all the costs, pay out the investors and take care of business.

Now as you have more control, that percentage and gross will drop and the magic number of sorts will reduce to get to the number you want.

This does not take away from the chances of major stardom, fame or fortune, but planning responsibly and having a nice overview of reality and a picture of success on a stable and realistic foundation can help you plan the right way as well as make the best choices while avoiding some gambling that can destroy any chances at all.

Reality sucks sometimes huh? But it is good for you, like vegetables!

L

Loren Weisman is an accomplished music producer, author and music consultant. He is the author of “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business”, a book to help independent artists, musicians, bands, labels and managers achieve self sufficient and sustainable success. For more info on Loren and music consulting services, visit: http://www.lorenweisman.com

Starting a music business – Ideas for musicians on how to find other like minded players.

Whether you are starting a music business, starting a band, a record label, a booking agency or any type of organization inside or outside of entertainment, it is common sense to find people that will work well with you and those that you will work well with.  This sounds obvious and yet, many will start a band, a business or a partnership only to realize down the line, as well as many thousands of dollars in, that mistakes were made.

Being in a band, a business or any type of partnership is like being in a relationship and unlike a normal relationship, it is often times with more than just one other person. When you are putting together a band or looking for others, make sure you are searching with a detailed minder. Some good ideas for musicians when it comes to the search is to ask a number of questions such as influences, inspirations, goals, things they can bring to the table to help, issues that they might have that could hurt.

Again, this seems obvious, yet in many music consulting sessions with bands that are heading toward the studio or putting together a music business plan, I will be the one asking these questions and get dumbfound looks across the room when the bass player says something to me that the guitar player was completely unaware of.

Communication is crucial. When it comes down to how to make it in entertainment, the first steps that need to be addressed are how can this group, band, team or whatever work together first. When you make that statement, “I want to be a musician”, and the others you are talking to are saying the same thing, you need to make sure you definition of that is on a similar page. From the early stages of not jumping in to something too fast and making sure every one is working together to create the right fit to common and agreed upon work approaches, they all have to mesh. Just because he is a great guitar player on stage, doesn’t mean it will be the best fit when it comes to the other 22+ hours of the day when you have to deal with the business, the travel, the promotion, the money issues and everything else. (and yes, that was a dig on guitar players. Feel free to launch your drummer jokes back at me)

From more detailed classified ads that go much further that “looking for a guitar player that rocks like no other” or “forming the best band in the universe” (yes, saw both these as posts in recent months) to taking the time to see if it is a good fit across the board, will save you time, frustration, anger and a fortune in wasted money. The devil is in the details. So bring him to the initial meetings to make sure the broad strokes and the defined strokes either work well together with everyone or you understand what you will need to compromise on in certain areas to make other things flow.

L

Loren Weisman is an accomplished music producer, author and music consultant. He is the author of “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business”, a book to help independent artists, musicians, bands, labels and managers achieve self sufficient and sustainable success. For more info on Loren and music consulting services, visit: http://www.lorenweisman.com

Internet security is an issue, just look at Facebook and all the shoe tags you get sent from people that got in to your account or a friends account. One of the best online marketing tips I can give as a music consultant is actually three fold.

1. Describe the link for others. 

2. Check the link to make sure it is era

3. Double check what you are really allowing when you add an application or a third party program to your website, Facebook, twitter or whatever else. 

Being hacked sucks, but there are a few simple rules to follow to reduce the chances of being hacked and having your account taken over.

First off,  when you are sending out links, whether on a social media site, your blog or in an email, explain and describe the link. As an independent musician, you are need to explain what you are sending, since online threats are growing daily and the viruses and scam sites grow in larger numbers every day. Not to mention, many people are getting these scam links from other musicians.

Tell someone that the link is a blog, a video or a song sample. Tell them where it is taking you. Now twitter will shrink the URL, but if you give a short description, it will instill a little more security for the apprehensive clickers. For your blogs or places where you have the ability to either put the full link or a shortened link, I like TinyURL.com, because you can shorten it, but also give it a shorter more personalized title, for example……

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-artists-guide-to-success/id407244128?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

That is the link to my book on iTunes and a long damn link.

But if I tell people…Here is the link to my iBook version of The Artist’s Guide: http://tinyurl.com/lorensbook 

Most will feel pretty safe and know that it is me and a link that I am sending.

Second, check the link to make sure you are on the right page. Ever get a message that sends you to tvvitter.com? it is a scam site and it fishes for you to sign in again. Many just think they have to log in again and do not realize, now you have given access to your twitter account to a scamming party. If you are ever prompted to log back in or a page comes up that doesn’t read exactly as the URL should, avoid it!!!!!

These are the little tricks that allow people access to your information and allow them to scam, spam and use your accounts. it has happened to many of us and it is each of our responsibilities to look at what we are logging in to or clicking through too.

Third, Watch out for the games, applications and services you add to your website. Check the terms and conditions as well as what you are allowing them to do. Some of these apps are scam and spamming things that you have clicked to allow to use your account to post things that you may not want posted.

For Facebook go to the upper right corner

Click on Account Settings

Then Click on Apps

Then click on each app for their app settings. 

You might be surprised at what you are allowing third party people to do.

Point is….. Give the description of what you are sending people so they know that what they are opening is coming from you. Make your password strong and keep that password strength in the green so it is harder to hack in to. lastly, change your passwords every so often for the best security. All of this may not stop your accounts, your social media or your website from being hacked, but you lessen the chances a great deal.

L

Loren Weisman is an accomplished music producer, author and music consultant. He is the author of “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business”, a book to help independent artists, musicians, bands, labels and managers achieve self sufficient and sustainable success. For more info on Loren and music consulting services, visit: http://www.lorenweisman.com